Microsoft Teams Interactive Demo
Microsoft Teams is a team collaboration platform that combines persistent chat channels, video meetings, file sharing, and a large catalog of third-party app integrations. It is included in Microsoft 365 plans and serves as the primary communication hub for organizations already in the Microsoft ecosystem.
What is Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft Teams is a collaboration platform launched in 2017 as part of Microsoft 365. It organizes communication into channels within named teams, handles one-on-one and group direct messages, hosts video and audio meetings with recording and automated transcription, and integrates with SharePoint and OneDrive for file management. With over 300 million monthly active users, it is among the most widely deployed workplace communication tools in the world.
The Copilot AI assistant, available on Microsoft 365 Copilot plans, can summarize meeting transcripts, draft messages, and pull answers from files shared within a channel. The Teams App Store provides over 1,000 integrations with tools like Salesforce, ServiceNow, Adobe, and Jira. Organizations using other Microsoft products — Exchange, SharePoint, Azure AD — benefit from tight native integration that reduces the configuration burden.
Teams is included in Microsoft 365 Business Basic at $6 per user per month. A limited free tier exists for non-commercial use. Enterprise agreements typically bundle Teams as part of larger Microsoft licensing, meaning the marginal cost is zero for organizations already paying for Microsoft 365.
How to get started with Microsoft Teams
- 1
Set up your Teams organization
If your organization uses Microsoft 365, Teams is already provisioned — sign in at teams.microsoft.com or download the desktop app with your work account. For new accounts, set your display name and profile photo before inviting colleagues.
- 2
Create your first team and channels
Click Teams in the left sidebar and select Join or Create a Team. Name the team after a department or project, add members by searching their email addresses, and create two or three starter channels for different topics. Avoid creating too many channels before usage patterns become clear.
- 3
Pin apps and files to channel tabs
Open a channel, click the + button in the tab bar, and add apps relevant to that team's workflow — a SharePoint document library, a Planner board, or a website tab. Tabs reduce context-switching by keeping key resources accessible inside the channel.
- 4
Schedule and run your first meeting
Go to Calendar in the left sidebar and click New Meeting. Add attendees, set a time, and send the invite. Attendees receive the invite in Outlook and can join from Teams or from the calendar link. Test recording and transcription during the meeting before relying on them for important sessions.
- 5
Configure notification settings
Open Settings > Notifications and adjust activity feed, chat, and channel notification preferences. Mute channels you are added to for reference but do not actively monitor. Setting Do Not Disturb hours prevents Teams from surfacing alerts outside of working hours on mobile devices.
Explore more Microsoft Teams guides
Step-by-step interactive demos and tutorials for Microsoft Teams.
Who is Microsoft Teams most useful for?
Enterprises already operating on Microsoft 365 get the most value from Teams because it requires no additional licensing and connects natively to Exchange calendars, SharePoint document libraries, and Azure Active Directory for identity management. For those organizations, adding Teams means unlocking a hub that ties together tools they already pay for.
Frontline worker organizations use Teams' shift scheduling, task assignment, and walkie-talkie push-to-talk features designed specifically for manufacturing, retail, and healthcare environments where workers are not at a desktop. These capabilities are largely absent from Teams' primary competitors.
Onboarding teams at larger companies use Teams alongside tools like Supademo to make the new employee experience more self-serve. Rather than scheduling live orientation calls for every new hire, they create interactive product tours in Supademo and pin them to a dedicated Teams channel so new employees can explore systems at their own pace and revisit the walkthroughs whenever they need a refresher.
Alternatives to Microsoft Teams
Teams' primary competitors differ on pricing model, interface philosophy, and how tightly they integrate with non-Microsoft toolchains.
Slack pioneered the channel-based messaging model and retains a strong following in software development and startup environments. Its app ecosystem is extensive, its search is fast, and its interface is less visually dense than Teams. The primary drawback is cost — Slack charges per seat where many Teams users pay nothing due to existing Microsoft 365 licenses.
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Google Meet is the video conferencing layer of Google Workspace. It prioritizes simplicity — no client install, direct calendar integration, and high-quality video on low-bandwidth connections. It is not a persistent messaging platform, so organizations comparing it to Teams are usually evaluating the video meeting capability specifically rather than the full collaboration suite.
Zoom built its reputation on reliable, high-quality video calls and became synonymous with video conferencing during 2020. Zoom Team Chat has expanded the product toward persistent messaging, but the platform's core strength remains video. Organizations choose it when video quality and meeting reliability are the top priority over workspace integration depth.
Discord originated in gaming communities and has expanded into professional and developer community use. Its persistent voice channels — where team members can drop in without scheduling a meeting — create an ambient presence that neither Teams nor Slack replicates natively. It is better suited for informal team cultures or external community management than for formal enterprise deployments.
FAQs on Microsoft Teams
Commonly asked questions about Microsoft Teams. Have more? Reach out and our team will be happy to help.
Is Microsoft Teams free?
Microsoft Teams has a free tier available for personal and small business use that supports unlimited chat, 60-minute video calls for up to 100 participants, and 5GB of cloud storage. The free tier does not include meeting recordings, phone system features, or advanced admin controls. Full Teams capabilities require a Microsoft 365 Business subscription starting at $6 per user per month, which most organizations already have through existing Microsoft licensing.
How do Teams channels work?
Teams channels are persistent, topic-organized conversation threads within a named team. Each channel has its own tab bar where apps, documents, and wikis can be pinned for quick reference. Standard channels are visible to all team members. Private channels restrict visibility and membership to a subset of the team. Shared channels allow members from different organizations to collaborate without guest account setup, which is particularly useful for vendor or partner workspaces.
Can Teams record meetings automatically?
Teams can record meetings automatically using a policy set by an IT administrator, or manually when a participant clicks the record button during a meeting. Recordings are saved to SharePoint or OneDrive and a link is posted in the meeting chat after the session. Transcription runs alongside the recording and is searchable after the fact. Automatic recording policies are available on Microsoft 365 Business Standard and higher plans.
What is Teams Copilot?
Teams Copilot is an AI assistant included with Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses. During a meeting, it can answer questions about what has been discussed so far, summarize the conversation, and list action items assigned to specific people. After a meeting, it generates a structured summary from the transcript. Outside of meetings, Copilot can draft channel messages, summarize unread threads, and search across documents and chats to surface relevant information.
How does Teams compare to Slack?
Teams and Slack both handle channel-based messaging and direct messages, but differ in depth of Microsoft ecosystem integration, pricing model, and interface density. Teams is included in existing Microsoft 365 licenses, making the effective cost zero for many enterprise customers. Slack has a more focused interface, a larger third-party app ecosystem by count, and is generally preferred by engineering and startup teams. Explore how Teams is set up in the Microsoft Teams interactive demo.
What apps integrate with Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft Teams integrates with over 1,000 apps through the Teams App Store, covering categories like project management, CRM, ticketing, analytics, and productivity. Native integrations exist for Salesforce, Jira, ServiceNow, Atlassian Confluence, and Zoom. Developers can build custom apps using the Teams SDK that appear as tabs, bots, or message extensions inside a channel. Power Automate flows can also trigger actions in Teams based on events in external systems.